


Count on Me

by fardareismai



Category: Doctor Who (2005)
Genre: F/M, Tumblr Prompt, single parent
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-05-20
Updated: 2019-05-20
Packaged: 2020-03-08 15:42:54
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 573
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18897670
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/fardareismai/pseuds/fardareismai
Summary: From the Tumblr prompt "Nine/Rose, Nanny/Single parent, with Rose as the single parent"





	Count on Me

**Author's Note:**

> Getting some of my Tumblr fics onto AO3

Rose picked up her shrilling mobile without checking the readout as she attempted to wrestle a surly four-year-old into his carseat.

“Tyler.”

“Hey sweetheart.”

Rose froze at the sound of her best friend’s voice.

“Jack, you sound like you’ve been eating sandpaper.  You can’t watch Rickey today, you’re sick!”

“Tell me about it,” her nanny agreed.  “I called to give you the address of my boss with the agency.  He agreed to take Rick for the week while I recover.  He’s great, I promise.  Name’s Jude.”

Rose was relieved.  She had to go into work this week.  Normally her schedule was sufficiently flexible that she and Jack could work around each other if necessary, but this week was the national sales meeting for Vitex and Pete needed all hands on deck.  She didn’t have time to find another vetted sitter.

“All right, give me the address.”

~?~?~?~?~

Rose rolled up to the small, bright blue cottage within ten minutes.  Frankly, this Jude’s place was more convenient than Jack’s.

“Come on, Monkey,” Rose said, unbuckling Rickey’s seat.  “We’re off to meet your new sitter for the week, okay?”

“Wazza ‘Police Public Call Box?’” Rickey asked squinting over her shoulder.

Rose turned and saw that there was an old panel from a 1950′s police box leaning against a shed in the side yard, that Rickey was squinting at.

Sometime the speed with which he’d learned his letters stunned her.  She felt just a bit weepy at the idea.

“It was like a box that was on the street corners before cell phones.  If you caught a bad guy, you could lock him up in there and then cal the coppers to come pick him up,” a voice from the other side of the car explained.  “You’re quite the reader, aren’t you?”

Rose looked up to find a slightly-daft face peering at her and Rickey over the top of her little compact.  He had blue eyes, short-cropped hair that made his ears stick out a bit, and a bright grin that was impossible not to return.

“Yeah! Rick said, squirming in Rose’s embrace.  “I read really good.”

Rose set him down and he went running to this new stranger.  He clung to the man’s pant leg and started trying to climb him like a tree.

“Well you’re a wee little ape, aren’t you then?” the man asked, sounding delighted.

Rickey took that and ran with it, literally.  He ran across the lawn hooting like a gibbon.

“He’s got a lot of energy,” Rose said, smiling after him.  “Jude, I presume?”

“That’s me!  And he’s four, it comes with the territory.  Anything I should know about?  Food allergies, fears, anything?”

“He’ll eat practically anything, like his dad, and he’s alternately scared of nothing and everything.”

“Sounds perfectly normal.  Where is his dad, by the way?”

Rose thought that the question was supposed to sound casual, but she hadn’t missed the way those crystalline blue eyes had sized her up.  She didn’t mine, her own brown-gold ones had done just the same to him, and she liked what she saw.

“Mick and I separated an age ago.  Nothing major, just drifted apart.  He sees Rickey regularly, he just happens to be out of the country for now on business.”

Rose glanced at her watch and jumped.  “Blimey, I’m going to be late!  It was just great to meet you.”

He grinned.  “Fantastic.  Run for your life, Rose Tyler!”


End file.
